Ear ornament clasp



Dec. 25, 1951 P. F. LEACH EAR ORNAMENT CLASP Filed Oct. 19, 1949 INVENTOR. 'p Eleacli Azifimqys' ear.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE' EAR ORNAMENT CLASP Philip F. Leach, Attleboro, Mass, assignor to General Findings & Su

01 Massachusetts pply 00., a corporation Application October 19, 1949, Serial No. 122,160

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an ornament which is worn on the lobe of the ear, usually referred to as an ear wire. I

Heretofore ear wires have been provided with some means for gripping the ear. this means consisted of a threaded stud which by turning would advance an enlarged head toward an opposite jaw to grip the lobe of the ear with an amount of pressure dependent upon the turn ing of the threaded member.

ear wire would drop from the ear. In other cases springs have been used for urging a grip on the Discomfort has been experienced because of the tension of the spring.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide an arrangement which will eliminate the use of a screw thread or a spring actuated jaw on the ear but in which the grip may be placed upon the car by sliding two members toward each other and then providing a means to prevent retraction of the members except by some manual manipulation.

Another object of this invention is t provide an arrangement so that after once the ear wire is clamped in position accidental opening is avoided.

Another object of this invention is to provide an extremely simple grip such, for instance, as the doubling upon itself of a piece of stock having inherent resiliency.

Another object of this invention is to provide an arrangement which may be flexed into a position so that the grip may be released and then when released the grip will be restored.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the ear wire formed in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a section of the portion of the ear wire which contains the invention herein with the parts shown in a position to grip the slidable member;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 but showing the position for releasing the grip on the slidable member; and

Figure 4 is a View similar to Figures 2 and 3 but illustrating the modified form thereof of ear Wire.

In proceeding with this invention I provide a piece of stock which is longer than that usually used for forming the U-shaped ear Wire and bend In many cases In other cases the ,1 screw would become loosened by rotation and the of the U in two parts and I pierce these parts with openings which'register when the parts are in parallel position but which move'or tend to move out of register when the parts are out of parallel position and thus grip a rod passed through the openings, it being possible to move the rod through the openings when the parts are moved to parallel position and to hold the rod gripped in the openings by releasing the parts of the bent arm'so that they will tend to move out of parallel position and grip the rod.

With reference to the drawings, I0 designates one of the jaws of the ear wire which is bent as at I I to dispose the stock generally parallel t an arm I 2. The jaw I0 and the bent portion II are round in cross section and consequently relatively stiff with relation to the arm llwhich is formed of two parts of stock 5 4 and I5 which are flattened as shown clearly in Figure 1 so as to be relatively bendable. This relatively bendable stock of the arm I2 is doubled upon itself as at I6 so that the portions l4 and I5 extend at an angle to each other, as shown more clearly in Figure 2. The end of the part I5 of the arm I2 is offset :as at I! so that when the part I5 is flexed by bending as at It beyond its normal set, the oiiset ll will engage the stock at a location I8 so that the parts I 4 and I5 are in parallel relation as shown in Figure 3.

Openings I 9 in the part I4 and 2B in the part I 5 are provided which are in alignment when the parts It and I5 are parallel, as shown in Figure 3, and a rod 2| is positioned in these openings and is of a shape corresponding to the openings and of a size slightly smaller than the openings so that when the parts It and I5 are parallel, the openings will align and permit the rod 2| to pass freely through the openings I9 and 20. In this position of parallelism, however, the parts are under an inherent tension to return to the position shown in Figure 2; thus when in this parallel relation they must be manually held by pressure in the direction of the arrow 22. When this pressure is released, however, the arms will spring apart to the position shown in Figures 1 and 2 and there the edges of the openings I9 and 20 will engage and bind on the rod 2I so as to hold it in 3 the outside of the lobe of the ear and a head 26 to act as a finger-piece for movement of the rod through the openings when the parts [4 and 15 are released.

In some cases instead of merely providing a bend as at 16 I may bend the stock into a key hole shape as at 21, shown in Figure 4, to provide a longer bend and a somewhat different resilient action.

It will be readily apparent that when pressure is applied to force the offset 11 against the body portion as at 18 the arms will then be parallel and the rod 2! may be freely slid toward and from the jaw so as to grip the ear with such pressure as may be desired then by release the rod will be maintained in this position and the ear wire will be firmly held on the ear.

It will be also apparent that the parts of the arm may have the openings therein so placed that these openings will align in any one relative position of the parts of the arm other than a parallel relation and that the binding will occur in all other positions.

I claim:

1. An ear wire comprising a body having a jaw to engage one side of the ear lobe and an arm of the same piece of material spaced from said jaw, said arm comprising two parts of the same piece of material resiliently connected together and normally disposed at one relative position to each other and movable into other relative positions by flexing said resilient connection, said parts each having an opening therethrough, a rectilinear rod through said openings with heads on each end, said rod being freely movable through said openings toward and from said jaw when the arm parts are in one relative position but bound against movement through said openings when the parts are moved relative to each other under influence of said resilient connection, one of the arm parts being-.ofiset to engage the other arm part when the arm parts are in the position to release said rod for free movement through said openings.

2. An ear wire comprising a body having a jaw to engage one side of the ear lobe and an arm of the same piece of material spaced from said jaw, said arm comprising two parts of the same piece of material resiliently connected together and normally disposed at an angle to each other and movable into parallel relation by flexing said resilient connection, said parts each having an opening therethrough, a rectilinear rod through said openings with heads on each end, said rod being freely movable through said openings toward and from said jaw when the arm parts are in parallel relation but bound against movement through said openings when the parts are moved'at anangle to each other under influence of said resilient connection, one of the parts of said arm being ofiset to'engage the other part when .in parallel relation to limit the movement of the parts toward each other.

' PHILIP F. LEACH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 814,084 Rypinski Mar. 6, 1906 1,152,892 Henry Sept. 7, 1915 2,295,685 Place Sept. 15, 1942 2,446,252 Stromelly Aug. 3, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 167,874 Germany May 16, 1934 

